Hughes hat-trick helps Cardiff defeat Zebre

Dafydd Hughes’ first-half hat-trick of tries lifted Cardiff to a 29-14 victory over Zebre at Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi.

Hughes barrelled over on the right in the 12th minute following a Cardiff lineout to put the Blues ahead before Giovanni Licata’s yellow card left Zebre down to 14 men on the quarter-hour mark.

Cardiff capitalised on the extra man advantage as Hughes dotted down once again in the 18th minute following a well-worked set-piece, with Ioan Lloyd adding the extras.

Once they were back to a full complement of players, Licata narrowed the deficit to five points when he touched down for a converted try but Cardiff had the final say of the first half.

Hughes again benefited from the rolling maul off a lineout as the hooker completed his treble after 39 minutes, with Lloyd splitting the posts with a conversion and then adding a penalty after the restart.

Marco Zanon dived over for the hosts seven minutes from time with Cardiff down to 14 following a yellow card for Taine Basham, who made amends in the dying seconds as his try secured a bonus point for the Blues.